Foam under a tank pro's and con's

[whitebird]

we will be setting up a 125gal AGA this will be our first of this size of tank and would like to hear your thoughts about putting foan between the tank and stand

 

[wangotango]

I don't think there are any cons, but it definately won't hurt anything to have it. Glass tanks just need to be supported around the perimeter whereas acrylic needs to be support on the entire bottom.
-Justin

 

[tizzo]

It is supposed to adjust for the iddy biddy differences in levelness. I built stands for a LFS in charlotte and where the wood warped, you could see the foam expand.
That being said, for the life of me, I cannot imagine the foam holding the weight of the tank to support it.
If a stand IS unlevel, I do not think the foam would matter much since it is to week.
That is strictly my opinion, and if I'm wrong, I really hope somebody points it out.

 

[camanuch]

IMO foam releases any stress points on the tank. From what I have read here. Nothing more nothing less. But I could be wrong as well

 

[whitebird]

how thick of foam would one use and what kind i have seen the blue and pink that are a harder foam and would the tank be set on it or like put a top wood frame so it wouldn't push up on the bottom of the tank

 

[scsinet]

You'd be surprised how much weight the foam can take without crushing. I placed a 180 gallon tank on a piece of 1/2". I estimate the load comes to about 2000lbs, and I measured about a 1/8" compression.
Your concerns about pushing on the tank are concerns I had to, so I actually did what you are talking about, I put a wood frame on top of the foam so the tank does not rest directly on the foam. This worked fine for me and should work fine for you, but the one thing I'll warn you of is that whatever you put between the tank and foam has to be dead flat. If not, it defeats the whole purpose of the foam.

 

[wattsupdoc]

I had foam under my 135. Because there were some slots cut in the back of the stand, and I placed the tank back further on it, the foam compressed through those slots, caused the tank to become out of level....big time. Getting the foam out was a BIG pain, with a fully stocked tank. But it's gone now. This was purely my own fault, however, in the future the ONLY way I'll use the foam is placed between two pieces of plywood as SCSI has stated. BTW. My tank is now more level than it ever was, even right after installing it before the foam compressed into the slots.

 

[whitebird]

well did some snooping on the forms(takes forever for the pages to load) some and found ScSi stand i might try to do it that way and see how it does